I turned my head slightly and I saw the gentleman in the distance. With a firm and powerful voice, he shouted me to use the sword he had thrown to fight.
The gentleman remained motionless, watching the battle from a distance. Gathering all my strength, I wielded the sword firmly and threw myself towards the angel, trying to advise a cut. But he reacted with inhuman speed, counteratacious with an accurate pit. The strength of his blow forced me to release the sword for a moment.
I crouched immediately, dodging his blow for little, and took the opportunity to recover the floor sword. The angel took impulse and, helped by his wings, rose in the air. He flew directly to me like a projectile, downloading a burst of fast cuts on my arms and legs. They were superficial, but accurate. Although he managed to contain the strength of his attacks, the accumulated pain made it difficult for me to move normally.
I moved away a few steps, panting for the effort, and asked him out loud:
"All of your race are that strong ... or just you?"
He simply responded with a dry "No."
I released an ironic laugh.
"Lady of mine ... the first day I leave that capsule and I run into a monster."
I noticed that the Elf girl was no longer on the floor. Without thinking, I attacked the angel again with the sword, forcing him to go back. He wanted to move him away from the place to give the girl time to escape and hide. While keeping him busy, I felt something strange: my wounds began to close slowly.
Thanks to regeneration, I could move more agility. I ran to the angel, and he did the same. Our swords collided again and again while we moved at high speed, exchanging cuts in arms and legs without giving us truce. The angel began to show signs of exhaustion: his arms trembled, his breathing became heavy. His body, covered with wounds, could no longer keep up. Mine was also hurt, but unlike him, my wounds closed alone over time. That difference was separating us ... slowly, but clearly.
The angel looked at me with pure hatred as I continued attacking me, every time with less precision, but with more anger.
Suddenly, he shouted furiously:
"I will lose against a miserable human like you!" You have no idea of everything we have sacrificed for this damn war!
I didn't know what to say. I was silent. But my arms did not stop. They kept moving, guiding the sword with a brutality that did not seem mine. Something inside me was beginning to take control. A force that I didn't understand ... nor could I stop.
I felt how my strength abandoned me little by little, but I couldn't fall. Not yet. I had to stand ... for her. For the girl.
The angel also began to falter; His movements were slower, more clumsy. I saw my chance and, with a last impulse, I ran towards him.
My sword crossed his chest. The sound of the metal when it rasted flesh and blood was recorded in my mind.
But he, with his last strength, counterated me, and his sword sank into my abdomen.
We both remain motionless for a moment, staring at us. He knew he couldn't continue. He began to spit blood, staggering.
My hands trembled when I withdrew my sword from his body. He fell to his knees ... and then, lifeless, to the ground.
I tried to take a step where I remembered having seen the elf girl hide, behind a tree. During combat, he had been able to see her run to that place.
But my legs no longer responded. I collapsed on his knees, exhausted.
I looked at my hands, trembling and covered with blood. My eyes clouded.
I tried to stand up once again ... but my body did not obey me.
The gentleman, seeing me collapsed, ran towards me without hesitation. As I approached, I began to hear a voice in my head ... but it was mine. It was as if I spoke to me in the ear, muttering things that I couldn't understand.
Everything became confusing. Reality blurred. I couldn't anymore. The world darkened and lost knowledge.
When I opened my eyes, I was lying against the trunk of a tree. In front of me, the girl elf stared at me, with tears overflowing from her eyes. In a sudden impulse, he threw himself over me and hugged me strongly, as if he was afraid to disappear.
She clung to my shirt, refusing to release me. I stroked his head softly, trying to calm his sobs. Little by little, in tears, he started talking. He told me that everyone who accompanied her had been killed by the angel ... her mother, her father, her friends, even the acquaintances of the people.
I had seen them scream in pain, ask for help ... but nobody went.
She managed to escape, but he reached her. And when I was about to kill her, I appeared.
Thanks to that, "he said in a trembling voice, he was alive.
I couldn't believe what he had just heard.
I kept stroking my head silently, letting the crying go out gradually. Finally, Elena calmed down.
With effort, I stood up and took it in my arms.
Without saying a word, we started walking where the gentleman was.
The gentleman was waiting for us in silence, on his knees in front of an improvised grave where he had buried the bodies of the fallen elves.
After finishing his prayer, he approached us with solemn expression.
"That girl didn't separate from your side or a second," he told me. It was she who accommodated you against that tree when you lost knowledge.
The girl looked down, cleaning her tears with trembling hands.
"My name ... it's Elena," he whispered in a soft voice, almost broken.
After drying my tears, Elena dedicated a faint smile. His eyes still reflected a deep sadness, but also something else: hope.
I loaded it behind my back, and we started walking.
After advancing a good stretch between trees and hills, we finally meet the other heroes. They were sitting on the floor, resting while waiting for us.
The gentleman pointed to us the top of a nearby hill and said:
"Just beyond ... is the kingdom of humans." The Lumeria kingdom.